Product Description

A collection of short stories by the author of the novellas "Cock and Bull" and the novel "My Idea of Fun". The book won the 1993 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #261467 in Books
• Published on: 1994-06-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!
I found references to this book one day while browsing through amazon.co.uk. I found it interesting enough to give it a go. When I started reading it I couldn't put it down and now I must say it is one of my favourite books!
Will Self assembled a collection of short stories, all about insanity in one form or the other.
Taken individually, there are here some very well-written stories, from the dark and weird "Ward 9" to the pseudo-cientific and very funny "Quantity Theory of Insanity" or the last end-of-century-philosophy of "Waiting".
But it's when you take the book as a whole that it truly surprises you. I read the opening story and I thought that it was funny, but it seemed more of a prelude than a part of the book, especially when I finished reading the second story, which had a totally different mood. It was only on the third or fourth story that I realised that there was a reference to one of the previous ones. And by the end of the book, even the prelude made sense after all.
Will Self tied all of his stories together, so this doesn't feel like just a collection of stories, if feels like we are looking at another universe, his universe, a cohese and rational universe. Which makes it really thought-provoking - the events are funny, but so real that make you think: are we really like this?
And that's the whole point, I suppose.

A great great book, don't miss it!

Self's best work
Hilarious, particularly to those with some experience of mental illness & its care - & I must applaud Self's groundbreaking invention of the 'triple-blind trial'.
Intellectually stimulating, and full of Self's characterstic wit.
To the reviewer who said "so what?",I don't think there is meant to be a simple unifying message in this book. What you get instead is a series of semi-linked scenarios, each bursting with ingenious observations & thought experiments.

Confusion
After reading this I found it difficult to work out if Self had entered my mind and shaken it all about or if I had entered his and lost mine somewhere within the process.In a similar way that Burroughs expertly projected his subject matter in Naked Lunch, Self takes us on an hilarious, nerve-wracking and exhausting journey through his mind and the minds of his characters, which ultimately leads to your head imploding around about the same time as it explodes. I have never laughed or cried so much at one sitting, nor have my ears bled for so long.Exquisite.